Robert Colville in today’s Telegraph is worried about the growing visibility of the spurious objectivity and insight of groups masquerading as grass-roots representatives or expert opinion. He points out the the Left are doing it better than the Right.
Colville is correct that our increasing distrust of politicians means outside expertise, however dubious, is gaining a respectful hearing.
He blames the BBC for its uncritical approach to experts from its pet subjects.
However, he doesn’t criticise the hard-pressed, credulous journalists who fail to probe the credentials of suspect material (like the Just Economics report sponsored by the RMT which received uncritical coverage earlier this week).
I suspect this trend has got a long way to run. That these outside pressure groups often succeed because their views chime with veins of public opinion that politicians feel unable to handle (on subjects like immigration and crime). And people power has hardly begun to have its voice heard on subjects like education, health and taxation.
